Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Impress your friends with these Dharma Initiative food labels. Right now the only one available for download is for "chili", but that's a good start. If you're one of the 3 people in America who doesn't know what the Dharma Initiative is, you can learn more about it here. (Via Clicked.)

To help introduce more people to "the magic of coin collecting," Scott A. Travers, a 44-year-old former vice president of the American Numismatic Association and author of The Coin Collector's Survival Manual, decided to mark National Coin Week in mid-April 2006 by deliberately spending three valuable old pennies as he made routine purchases around Manhattan. "I'm planting a seed, and I hope that a new generation of people will come to appreciate the history that coins represent," he said.

The three coins Scott Travers planned to spend were all relatively low-mintage U.S. one-cent pieces nearly one hundred years old: a 1908-S Indian Head cent, and 1909-S VDB and 1914-D Lincoln cents. (In the conditions released by Travers, these coins are worth roughly $200, $1,000, and $300, respectively.) Mr. Travers said he put the 1914-D Lincoln cent into circulation on 12 April 2006 when he purchased a pretzel from a food stand in Times Square, and that he planned to spend the other two coins within the next several days.

So far, there have been no reports of anyone's finding any of the three rare pennies.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

In their quest to create the super warrior of the future, some military researchers aren't focusing on organs like muscles or hearts. They're looking at tongues.

By routing signals from helmet-mounted cameras, sonar and other equipment through the tongue to the brain, they hope to give elite soldiers superhuman senses similar to owls, snakes and fish.

Researchers at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition envision their work giving Army Rangers 360-degree unobstructed vision at night and allowing Navy SEALs to sense sonar in their heads while maintaining normal vision underwater -- turning sci-fi into reality.

Even if most eyewitness identifications are reliable, "we know it is accounting for more wrongful convictions than all the other causes put together," including false confessions, jailhouse "snitches," and outright fraud, says [Iowa State psychology] Professor Wells. "When a witness takes the stand and says, 'that's the guy I saw,' that is so persuasive. We need to find ways to prevent mistaken IDs from happening in the first place."

Someday soon, video gamers may be able to use their heads, literally, to get better scores in their games.

At least two start-ups have developed technology that monitors a player's brain waves and uses the signals to control the action in games. They hope it will enable game creators to immerse players in imaginary worlds that they can control with their thoughts instead of their hands.

Performing ablutions for Muslim prayers with water rationing in space and preparing food according to Islamic standards will be among issues discussed, said Angkasa's director-general, Mazlan Othman.

...The astronaut will also visit the International Space Station, which circles the earth 16 times in 24 hours, so another thorny question is how to pray five times a day as required by Islam, she said.

Muslims also have to turn towards Mecca to pray and working out which direction that will be while hovering above the earth might also be challenging.

Q) What are the Islamic laws (salah, fasting,etc) when living in space? Is Islam only for the Earth? As you now people live in space stations for months on end (even >1 year). How does Islamic rules apply i.e. Prayer Times, Fasting times, sighting of the moon for eid, etc? Does this mean that Islam is only for the Earth as many sunnats not possible, e.g. no tayamum even though water in very short supply, etc. Some people would say Islam is outdated as it cannot meet these challenges. How do I answer them?

However, the Imam's brief reply did not provide much in the way of detail, merely stating:

A) Islam can be well practised in Space as well. Which specific aspect of Islam in space do you wish to know about?

Q) If man starts to live on other planetary bodies e.g. Mars or from far away where the Earth will only be viewed like a star then,

1. As a muslim, where will one face if he is to pray and at what time will he pray if the daylight or night-time is constant.

2. Assuming a man has left earth to settle on another favourable planet which will take him say 50 yrs to reach, how will he be able to perform hajj, will a child be sent to Mecca to perform hajj and not be able to come to his new home or what?

3. The Holy month of Ramadan is decided on the lunar calendar. Now if a muslim is on another planet (eg Mars), which the day and night and the revolution of the planet differs from that of earth, how will he be able to know that it is the month of ramadan and if daylight is constant, how will he be able to distinguish dusk and dawn?

A) Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

Your question is hypothetical, and a person should not be preoccupied with hypothetical issues which are far from becoming reality.

However, if we suppose that a person is living in such a planet, he still has to face the Earth where the Ka'ba is. If he could not do so, then he can pray in any direction.

Allah Says: {...so wherever you turn yourselves or your faces there is the Face of Allah (and He is High above, over His Throne)...}[2:115]. That is of course when it is not possible to determine the direction of Kiblah.

As regards the timing for the prayers, he has to estimate it. In this era, the means of estimation had become available, Praise be to Allah.

The evidence about this is the Hadith in which it is mentioned that the first day of the days of Dajjal is like a year, and the second day is like a month, and the third day is like a week. The companions asked the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam): 'Is it possible for them to pray only one prayer.' The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) replied: "No, you have to estimate for it."

With regard to Hajj, he has to come down to the planet Earth, if it is possible for him to do so. However, if he is unable to come on Earth, then it will not be obligatory on him. In this case, he will be considered like a person who leaves in a remote country which is far away from Makkah, and cannot come to it.

Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {...And Hajj (pilgrimage to Makkah) to the House (Ka'bah) is a duty that mankind owes to Allah, those who can afford the expenses (for one's conveyance, provision and residence);....}[3:97].

Therefore, if the life of this person is in danger when descending from that planet to Earth in order to perform Hajj, then it is not obligatory on him to perform Hajj.

In relation to the month of Ramadan, if it is not permissible to define it, (then in this case) he has to fast one month in every 12 months and this will suffice him.

The avatar named Anshe Chung may be a computerized chimera, but the company she represents is far from imaginary. Second Life participants pay "Linden dollars," the game's currency, to rent or buy virtual homesteads from Chung so they have a place to build and show off their creations. But players can convert that play money into U.S. dollars, at about 300 to the real dollar, by using their credit card at online currency exchanges. Chung's firm now has virtual land and currency holdings worth about $250,000 in real U.S. greenbacks. To handle rampant growth, she just opened a 10-person studio and office in Wuhan, China. Says Chung's owner, who prefers to keep her real name private to deter real-life intrusions: "This virtual role-playing economy is so strong that it now has to import skill and services from the real-world economy."

The Waiter Rule: How can a busy CEO tell whether a subordinate is genuinely nice or is just sucking up to him? The most reliable test is to see how he treats the waiter. According to this very interesting article, how a person treats someone perceived to be lower on the pecking order reveals volumes about his or her character. (Via Plastic.)

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Saturday, April 22, 2006

The as-yet-untitled "Star Trek" feature, the 11th since 1979, is aiming for a fall 2008 release through Paramount Pictures, the Viacom Inc. unit looking to restore its box-office luster under new management, the trade paper said.

The project will be directed by J.J. Abrams, whose Tom Cruise vehicle "Mission: Impossible III" will be released by Paramount on May 5. Abrams, famed for producing the TV shows "Alias" and "Lost," will also help write and produce.

Daily Variety said the action would center on the early days of "Star Trek" characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer-space mission.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Chilling science-fiction short-short story of the day: "Message From The Future" by Dan Simmons (author of the Hyperion series) has been getting a lot of buzz around the blogosphere for its dark vision of the future of America and Islam. If the main page is down, here's the Google cache version.

With his family still sleeping, Givens heads out the door at around 4:30 a.m. from a horse ranch at the edge of the astonishing Yosemite National Park. On a good day, he can make the 186-mile trip to Cisco's sprawling offices in less than three hours.

It takes about nine cups of coffee, XM satellite radio and audio books to make the drive tolerable.

Givens then usually arrives home at around 8 or 8:30 p.m. This drive home through thicker traffic can take up to five hours some days.

The glorious Yosemite country and horses make the commute worth the effort to Givens -- who pounds more than 30 cups of coffee by the end of the day.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Friday, April 14, 2006

Global warming skepticism: There have been a number of recent articles raising doubts about the mainstream view of global warming. Here are a couple of the more interesting ones from the British press:

There's also a recent op-ed by Dr. Richard Lindzen, currently Alfred P. Sloan professor of atmospheric sciences at MIT, in which he argues that the global warming alarmists have distorted the science, and are suppressing the skeptics. This is quite interesting, especially given that the global-warming alarmists are the ones claiming to be suppressed (likening their political situation to "Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union"), but their side of the story is the one that one always hears on NPR, NY Times, Time magazine, ABC News, etc., whereas skeptics like Lindzen rarely get equal time.

I don't expect this one blog post to immediately change many minds on this contentious issue. For now, I'd be satisfied with making the point that the issue is not the simple slam-dunk as is typically portrayed in the usual news media. Nor are the opponents of global warming hypothesis/Kyoto treaty necessarily stupid or corrupt.

[/soapbox off]

Update: It's been pointed out to me via e-mail and online discussion boards that if I can objectively prove that any polluter(s) have caused significant harm to me or my property, I should in general be able to address that through the courts, without requiring broad new laws that regulate entire industries.

Great Britain has launched a new high-tech national crime-fighting agency, the SOCA. However, some people have a question about its logo.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has chosen a fierce big cat bearing its fangs and leaping over a stylised silver globe, with a crown capping it all.

It's bold but bears a striking resemblance to the logo of the 1980s children's cartoon series Thundercats. So was the comparison to the show -- which featured humanoid cats battling evil mutants in the Earth's distant future -- intentional? Soca declined to comment.

Fly for free: The controversial Irish airline Ryanair is moving towards a fascinating business model in which the airfare is free. They make money by charging for ancillary services, including baggage check-in and food, having advertisements on seat-backs, affiliate programs with hotels and rental car agencies, etc.

Already a quarter of their passengers pay zero for airfare, and they expect that by 2010 over half of their customers will fly for free. Plus they're making a ton of money with this approach:

Even more impressive, Ryanair's $368 million in net earnings gave the airline an industry-leading 22 percent net profit margin. (By comparison, Southwest Airlines's net margin was 7.2 percent.) "Ryanair has the strongest financials in the European airline industry," says James Parker, an equity analyst with Raymond James.

...For passengers seeking distraction, Ryanair intends to offer in-flight gambling in 2007, with the airline earning a tiny cut off of each wager. [CEO Michael] O'Leary thinks gambling could double Ryanair's profits over the next decade, but he's not stopping there.

I'm waiting for the next logical step -- namely an airline that pays me to fly with them.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Researchers have found a way to target cancer cells by injecting tiny particles that will attack only the diseased cells while leaving healthy cells unscathed, according to a study released on Monday.

...In the mice, the tumors shrank dramatically and all of the mice survived the study while the untreated control animals did not.

"A single injection of our nanoparticles completely eradicated the tumors in five of the seven treated animals, and the remaining animals also had a significant tumor reduction, compared to the controls," said Dr. Omid Farokhzad, assistant professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

...[O]ur research group has taken modern high-speed videography equipment and combined it with some classical visualization methods to image shock waves from explosions and gunshots in more realistic environments. This allows us to capture the development and progress of these wave fronts on a scale that has not been possible in the past.

...Hollywood clearly does not understand shock waves, resulting in some ludicrous cinematic special effects. On television, Bart Simpson sent a shock wave rippling across Springfield by yelling into a row of megaphones ganged together in series. Children who try this at home will be disappointed -- it doesn't actually work to produce shock waves. In movies, the hero might outrun the blast from an explosion on his motorcycle. Real motorcycles cannot begin to approach such speeds, and if they did they would not likely stay on the ground. But actual shock waves, in fact, are much more interesting than anything Hollywood has come up with so far to represent them.

Excellent customer service: Airport Pizza of Nome, Alaska will deliver pizzas via air for free to small villages and towns along the routes of Frontier Flying Service. The pizzas are apparently quite good, although the customers of course need to reheat them after they receive. They also don't promise "30 minutes or less". (Here's their menu.)

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Currently it's only available for military/law enforcement, but sooner or later (probably sooner) I predict someone will develop a similar product and sell it to civilians and/or bad guys. Here's the corporate website.

JoAnna Michaels is an inveterate listener of National Public Radio, but she won't be tuning in as much this month.

Her local Las Vegas affiliate, KNPR, kicked off its spring membership drive last week with program interruptions pleading for donations, so Michaels is bypassing that semiannual annoyance by loading up her MP3 player with various National Public Radio programs available in whole or in part for free as podcasts.

"Why would I sit through all of that if I can get what I like for free online, listen to it on my own time and not be guilted for weeks into giving money?" says Michaels, a real estate agent who says her husband donates to the station on behalf of her family. "I've even found a whole bunch of NPR shows online that aren't on NPR here, which is so great."

Invention of the day: "The Wrigley Gum Company has paired up with the U.S. military to create an anti-bacterial chewing gum that actually cleans teeth so soldiers wouldn't have to stop what they're doing to brush their pearly whites. If the military signs on to it, there's a good chance it will end up in your medicine cabinet one day. "

A camera on the tip of Robertson's glasses sends signals to a computer that's strapped around her waist. The computer then stimulates electrodes in the brain through a cord that attaches to the head. Patients see flashes of light and outlines of objects.

Because the procedures is not approved in the US, the surgery was performed in Portugal. Article includes a link to a video. (Via /.)

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

How to encrypt your internet telephone calls. The article gives Phil Zimmerman's new software a positive review, although it correctly notes that it may suffer from the same user adoption issues as Zimmerman's earlier PGP for e-mail, where there isn't yet a sufficiently motivated critical mass of users to make the technique widespread.

The software was tested last year on 50 divorcing couples, with the outcomes evaluated by Victoria Legal Aid. Each party is given a limited number of points, which they are asked to allocate to the items of property they wish to keep. Through a multi-step process of modification, the parties are encouraged to give priority to the items they most value. The researchers found that, using the software, each party ended up with 70-80% of what they originally wanted, rather than the usual 50-50 split.